Principles and Techniques of Veterinary and AH Extension

EDUCATION

Education is a process of bringing desirable changes into the behaviour of human beings.These changes must be desirable to the society at large. The education is effective when it results in changes in all the following behavioural components as specified by Paul Leagans:

• K nowledge - What an individual knows
• A ttitudes -What he thinks
• S kills ( both Physical& Mental ) -What he can do
• A ction - What he actually does

These are in short regarded as KASA changes.

Types of education

• Education is categorized into informal, formal and non formal on the basis of the extent of use of formal rules and regulations.

Informal education

• The day to day process of learning, whereby knowledge is transferred in the context of the family, the neighborhood, the daily working relationships between the people and through the media. The best example is the way one learns at home especially when his mother teaches him. There is neither a fixed curriculum nor rules for learning. It is the most important source of knowledge for successive farming generations, but not for rapid agricultural development. It tends to be static and traditional. It serves as a basis for the other categories of education.

Formal Education

• The education which takes place in the schools and colleges. It starts from theory to practice. It can either be general or vocational. There is a fixed curriculum and set pattern of examination mostly leading to the award of degrees or diplomas. The audience is homogeneous with similar characteristics of age, education, common goals etc. Teaching is vertical in the sense it flows from the teacher to the students. The primary education contributes a lot to agricultural/livestock production indirectly, as it enlarges the absorption capacity for vocational education following it.

Non-formal Education

• All organized education outside the formal education system. It is mostly practical and problem oriented. The audience is heterogeneous (differ in age, sex, literacy level, resources etc.) and they may have varied goals. Teaching is mostly horizontal in the sense the teacher also learns from the farmers. Extension education is a type of non formal education.